


In The Middle

by grayimperia



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21944890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayimperia/pseuds/grayimperia
Summary: Relationships are about compromise, and Ferdinand was good at relationships.Or, Hubert skins a Furby and Ferdinand copes.
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 6
Kudos: 204





	In The Middle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bizarrebird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bizarrebird/gifts).



> Modern au.

Ferdinand was in a tizzy. He paced for about ten minutes before deciding to call Edelgard, which was five minutes longer than usual.

“Edelgard, I think this is it. I don’t think I can go on. My heart can’t take it.”

“Ferdinand,” she said. “I hear you—I really do. But you also say this every time something happens. It is… disturbing, I admit, but I don’t think it’s worth freaking out over.”

Ferdinand turned the monstrosity over in his hands. “Edelgard, I sent you a picture, but I gave you warning. Imagine just coming home, walking into your living room and seeing… that sitting there, waiting for you on your coffee table! I nearly had a heart attack!”

“Then just ask him to keep it in a drawer or something.”

“No, no, no, absolutely not,” Ferdinand said. “I would have nightmares about the thing crawling out and coming after me in the night. Not to mention that now I know he does things like this! The cat cannot go back in the box Edelgard! It just can’t!”

“In Hubert’s defense, you knew he was like this beforehand. He did things like this all the time when we were children.”

“Yes, but as a child, you do not know any better. You don’t understand the horror of skinning a Furby as a child! But as an adult—well I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through his head when he committed such an atrocity!”

Edelgard sighed. “Look, I don’t know what you want me to say. Just speak to him about it if it bothers you that much.” 

“I know, I know, but what does one say when confronted with something like this?”

“I don’t know, Ferdinand. That’s why you should try to have the conversation. Figure it out.”

“But Edelgard…”

“Ferdinand.”

“What if this is it? What if we are just too different? I just honestly am not sure if I can be with a man who would… I mean, what comes next? Cats? Small children? I can’t be an accomplice in that!”

There was a moment of silence, then another heavy sigh. “Ferdinand, you’re going to break up with Hubert because he peeled the skin off a Furby?”

“No, no I’m not, but… oh, but I have to say something!” He heard the distant sound of his front door opening and closing. “Oh, Edelgard, he’s home. I have to go. Thank you so much for your advice. Are you still coming over for game night on Friday?”

“I really—”

“I’m looking forward to it, bye!”

Ferdinand hung up the phone, scrambled out of the room, and attempted to lean on the doorframe in a casual looking manner.

Hubert must have heard his frantic movements as he turned from hanging up his many coats he always wore no matter the temperature to look at Ferdinand. “Hello. Is something the matter?”

“Why, no, no, not at all. I just got home early from work and thought I’d greet you.”

Ferdinand knew he was a poor liar, and, with a living lie detector like Hubert, he tended to forgo trying at all. But this was a lie that was for the good of them both. At least he hoped. 

Hubert’s expression betrayed that he didn’t believe him for a second. “Well, I am going to go prepare some coffee for myself. I assume you would like something as well?”

“Yes, yes, and if you wouldn’t mind getting out those cookies Bernadetta sent us—we should finish them off before they go bad.”

Hubert turned to leave, calling over his shoulder. “I’ll leave that task to you. You know I am not partial to sweets.”

“But you are partial to Bernadetta, so you must try enough to tell her how they were when she asks.”

Hubert didn’t say anything more, which was Ferdinand’s usual cue that he had won an argument. He smiled to himself in satisfaction over his small victory, and settled down at their dining table, ready to enjoy a perfectly nice evening. Then the door he had left ajar to their living room caught his eye, and the creature that dwelled within caused his heart to sink. 

Hubert could be so sweet, but there was another part of him that sometimes made Ferdinand uncomfortable. Not as uncomfortable as visits to his father’s did, but about the same level of discomfort as when he saw a spider that he wasn’t entirely sure wasn’t poisonous. That had been one of the rules in their relationship once they decided to move in together—Hubert would handle the spiders and could not have a pet tarantula. Of course, by that same measure, Ferdinand had agreed not to get a tropical bird, even if there colors were quite appealing. They were far too loud for Hubert, so he would just happy to be happy with his horses. 

It was a compromise, but one Ferdinand could accept. And relationships were about compromise, and Ferdinand was good at relationships. Or at least he wanted to be. The days were increasingly far apart—entire months now at a minimum—but he still had the occasional thought that he wasn’t as far from his childhood self as he wanted to be. The version of himself that was so confused that things didn’t work out like they did in his storybooks—that other children were annoyed and not impressed by his pointers on etiquette and efforts to prove he was talented and skilled and worthy of friendship.

The kettle started to whistle, pulling Ferdinand from his reverie. He sighed. All this over a child’s toy. Perhaps Hubert wasn’t the problem if such a small thing sent him reeling. Maybe Edelgard was right that time in junior high when she stomped on his foot and called him too dramatic to function. She had had braces at the time, so the words were a bit slurred together, but it stung all the same. 

Ferdinand took a deep breath and steeled himself. Whether this was about him or Hubert, he couldn’t just let it eat him alive without saying a word. He had to be mature. 

He called over his shoulder, “Hubert, do you still have your junior high yearbook?”

“If I do, I don’t know where it has gone to,” Hubert replied from the kitchen. “There is a good chance I destroyed it, however. Edelgard was not pleased with her picture in it.”

“But she was quite adorable. She was still wearing her hair in pigtails then, right?”

“Braids, actually.” Then, Hubert emerged with a cup in each hand. “I would braid her hair every morning. Von Riegan then started pulling on her braids, and she decided to stop.”

Ferdinand smiled. “You remember it like it was yesterday.”

“I’d thank you for the compliment, but I just think I am better at holding a grudge than most,” Hubert said, but he was smiling, too. “One does not easily forgive a man who caused hours of practicing how to do a half-up double waterfall braid to go to waste.”

“You are a man of many talents.”

“Yet strangely that one does not come up much in my daily routine.”

“Only because you never allow yourself the time to sit down and practice,” Ferdinand said. “You have a willing test subject right in front of you.”

Hubert shook his head with a small chuckle. “I am more than ten years out of practice. If you want anything decent, you should go to Petra. She could put whatever I would create to shame.”

“Oh, she is very talented, but she is not you, which makes all the difference! All the technical skill in the world cannot make up for something that is given to you by someone you love.”

“You truly will be the death of me. Well, alright, but if my coffee gets cold, it will be on you.”

“There is no reason to worry about that. It is just as unappetizing warm or cold.”

Hubert rolled his eyes, but took his place behind Ferdinand to get to work. Ferdinand recalled theater productions in college where Dorothea would brush and weave his hair just a little too sharply. She’d tug too harshly both to make the process go faster and to vent some of her general frustrations with him. When he complained that his horses would bite him if he treated them that roughly, Dorothea only laughed and asked if he would like a carrot as a reward afterwards. 

But Hubert got his start with Edelgard and gentleness is embedded in every twist, every time he cards his fingers through his hair, and every pause he takes to untangle a bit of unruliness. He’s deliberate too, and stops to undo everything a few times when he must not have gotten it right. 

And that’s what Hubert does—he gets things right. 

Ferdinand considers himself something of a perfectionist, as well, which must be why they work so well together. Everything has to be a certain way, and they’ll keep working at it until it’s right. 

They’re also both far too stubborn to give up, which is both a blessing and a curse. Ferdinand was eventually able to decorate their living room like the one in his fantasy home, but he and Hubert had had to sleep over at Linhardt and Caspar’s for a few nights because the constant smell of drying paint as Ferdinand searched for the exact color he wanted was so unbearable. But Hubert endured, and in turn Ferdinand did not complain when forced him to scour the mall for hours to find the perfect present for Edelgard’s birthday. 

They also made it an effort to find the perfect compromises. Accepting a slightly different perfection in exchange for a more mutual perfection. Hubert wouldn’t go riding with him, but they could have dates where they just led horses around by their halters on the beach. Ferdinand couldn’t stomach the bitter food Hubert seemed to survive on, but he had expanded his culinary skills far more than expected to find suitable alternatives. 

Give and take, push and pull—all the things that helped keep the balance that allowed them to have afternoons and evenings like the one that currently embraced them.

But then the door again caught his eye. 

Ferdinand cleared his throat. “Hubert, I have a question for you. How are you with electronics?”

“Alright, I suppose. Why? Has something broken?”

“Oh, no. I was just curious. Again—man of many talents!”

Hubert sighed. “Are you going to tell me what you are hiding from me?”

Ferdinand looked sheepishly over his shoulder. “I truly can get nothing past you, can I?”

To his relief, Hubert looked amused rather than irritated. “I eviscerate liars and cons a thousand times better than you every day at work. You have no hope.”

Ferdinand did hope that was metaphorical evisceration Hubert alluded to. He could never be quite sure, and even after years together, he wasn’t entirely sure what Hubert’s job was. Another dark corner of discomfort he had trouble wading in. 

“Well,” Ferdinand said. “I… I suppose there is no point in delaying it any further.” Hubert’s hands in his hair stilled, which Ferdinand knew meant he was worrying him. “It is nothing of great concern, but, ah, there was a… child’s toy in the living room when I returned home. But it seemed to be missing its, well, its flesh.”

“Oh.”

“It was a bit startling, I cannot lie.”

“Suppose I should have put it away.”

“Okay, yes, but… why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you have a Furby with no skin?”

He chanced another look at Hubert to see him shrug. “When I was a child I enjoyed taking things apart to see how they work. I’m much the same way now.”

“But, Hubert… that creature. There is something truly unnatural about it.”

“If it disturbs you so much, then I’ll choose something else to experiment on.”

“Okay, when you say it like that, I feel faint. Please don’t speak vaguely about this.”

Hubert laughed. “I shall find something different to deconstruct—not children’s toys. Maybe other electronics without faces. Would that be better?”

“Oh, a hundred times yes. Even going in that room while that creature is still there makes my heart flutter. And also, I know you answered, but I still have to ask—why?”

Hubert’s hands left his head and he returned to the seat next to him. “Truthfully, I created that when I was a child. The last time I visited Edelgard, I decided to collect a few possessions of mine that I had left over the years. I must have made that thing when I was thirteen. I was looking at it and forgot to put it away.”

Ferdinand lets out a sigh of relief. “Well, that is good to hear.”

“It was actually quite nostalgic. I don’t know how you, Edelgard, or anyone else tolerated me at the age. It wouldn’t occur to me now to do something like that, but at the time I made it without a second thought.”

Ferdinand reached a hand back to feel the new, only slightly uneven braid in his hair. “You have grown quite a bit since then. We all have.”

“Yes. You know,” Hubert said, leaning around to admire his work again. “I think it was an attempt to act out, in retrospect. I was a foolish child, and no one but Edelgard was interested in speaking to me, so I saw no reason not to play into the role of monster that I was given.”

Ferdinand smiled. He did remember trying to match the people in his life to his storybooks. He was the prince, Edelgard was the princess, and Hubert was a goblin, vampire, ogre, or even dragon based on the fable. 

“And you have since learned not to embrace such things?”

Hubert’s grin grew at touch wicked. “I’ve learned to temper myself. Compromise.”

As much as the furless creature would haunt his dreams, Ferdinand had to acquiesce. Though the dark would always frighten him, he would never force Hubert to give it up or drag him to rot in the light. They were both perfectionists, stubborn, and different people. Too different even. 

But only if they didn’t know when to accept that maybe there was some merit in the other’s idea of perfection. 

“And it has become one of your greatest talents,” Ferdinand said. “And when I have been trying to master as well. So… you may keep your foul creature. Just… somewhere I can’t see it, please? And with a lock so it won’t, oh, come to life in the middle of the night and seek revenge?”

Hubert chuckled. “I’ll bring it to my office, and place it on my desk next to your picture. How is that?”

“Next to Edelgard’s picture. One away from mine. Deal?”

“Deal, on the condition that you are not horrified with what I have done when you look in the mirror.”

Ferdinand wanted to replied that be could never be horrified by Hubert, but he had also never been much good at lying. Instead he took his hands and said, “I promise my heart can take it.”

**Author's Note:**

> A small, fluffy and very silly fic I wrote after coming to the conclusion that Hubert absolutely would skin a Furby. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
